Lincoln County voters, who live in Sioux Falls, will be able to save themselves a trip to Canton to drop off their absentee ballots. The Lincoln County auditor’s office will be setting up a once-a-week drop-box in Sioux Falls later this month.
The drop-off will be located in the parking lot of Faith Baptist Fellowship at 57th and Minnesota, right along Lincoln County’s northern border. Lincoln County voters can drop off their absentee ballots from 3-7 p.m. Wednesdays, starting September 30th.
But see this drop box is okay, because it is in a heavily Republican area within Sioux Falls. The refusal to have secure drop boxes in Minnehaha County in the city limits is further proof of voter suppression especially when it is okay to have them in Lincoln County at a private location. I’m wondering if the Lincoln County auditor asked our mayor if this was okay? Oh, that’s right, they don’t have to . . . when you are in RED country.
“In Mayor TenHaken’s letter, when he talks about the integrity of the election, I have to question his integrity,” Barth said during the Minnehaha County Commission meeting.
This appears to be what I have said it was from the beginning, blatant partisan voter suppression by Mayor Stoneless, and Jeff reiterated that at the meeting. Just look at how he has moved the goal posts in just a few days, first it was about ‘Security’ and when he couldn’t get any traction on that he said it was about ‘State Law’ than when that didn’t stick he said it was about what they do in Iowa.
I will have to agree with Barth, it’s not about any of those things, it’s just plain Bullsh*t coming from a very weak individual who continues to fail at leadership. If Paul had any stones at all, he would come in front of the County Commission and explain to them in person why he won’t do it, or at least send the person who is really running the city, COS Beck, to explain it.
When Paul was elected he had a long history of making a living at being a partisan hack, so I had no question in my mind he would continue that tradition as mayor, and he hasn’t disappointed in that respect. Just like the last guy who made a living from being a salesman, he continued that tradition as mayor.
Folks, in Sioux Falls, Covid is not what ails us, it’s our government.
Not only does our Mayor HATE transparency and openness in local government, but now he is actively supporting voter suppression.
Trust me, I was pretty shocked that the SD ACLU got involved, when we pointed out the irregularities in the School Bond vote (super precincts in only the southern part of town and hand counting by finance staff) they virtually ignored us. This time thankfully they are stepping up;
The government should never require citizens to play roulette with their health in order to vote. That’s why we’re pushing Mayor TenHaken to think creatively and work with County Auditor Bob Litz to install additional ballot drop boxes ahead of the November Election
TenHaken’s reasoning for the denial was a lack of time to iron out the necessary security details. The Mayor and his team can do better.
Defenders of the mayor have said that ‘He actually has utterly nothing to do with the November election.’ They are correct on that point, and I have told Auditor Litz in person that he is in charge of the election and has wide authority. The problem? He has to have permission from the city’s top executive to place the drop boxes on city owned property. Despite what others are saying, Bob did ‘ask’ the city for that permission. I asked Bob, “Why is the mayor so against your proposal?” Bob figures he was mad because he wasn’t included in the plan. But this is where Bob made a great point, and I am paraphrasing, “If I would have asked permission from the city before putting together a plan, they would have said to me, come back with a plan. So I did the legwork and worked up a plan before I asked.” You would have thought the mayor would have been appreciative. Nope. When Bob said the city doesn’t have the ‘stones’ to move forward, I’m guessing he was talking about the chief executive, who I have argued does have ‘stones’ mostly in his head. The mayor didn’t even have the leadership and courage to contact Bob himself in an email or phone call, he had one of his communications minions tell Bob NO.
As for the security issues, first off, they could have had a couple hour meeting with the chief of police, the sheriff and the risk manager and worked out those details. As for people stealing a drop box, highly unlikely. They would have been secured to the ground and under 24/7 camera and light surveillance and most likely emptied each day. Also, take into account that stealing ballots is a crime that has some hefty penalties. And even then, what would be the point? You would be stealing ballots from both sides, so it would serve no nefarious purpose.
This is just part of a larger right-wing wacko conspiracy theory that drop boxes and voting by mail is riddled with fraud. This has been proven to not be the case.
I encourage the city council to put a resolution together to make it happen, we still have almost 20 days to get it done.
I don’t know if I am more disappointed in the mayor for believing such nutty theories or that he supports blatant voter suppression. Auditor Litz is right, grow a pair and while your are at it, a brain.
Funny how the treasurer who told me all along he wasn’t Alex’s campaign manager knows so much about the strategy that was used. Matt was Alex’s campaign manager and everyone knew it. It was one of the lousiest lies I have ever heard in a campaign. But telling the truth doesn’t win elections.
• Raised a buttload of money (from the banksters and develpers) and spent around 10X more than his opponent.
• Campaigned 3X longer than his opponent.
• Used the extra time from a delayed election to campaign more to primary voters that don’t normally vote in city elections.
• Used the list of Mayor TenHaken’s supporters from 2018 to turn the tide in the SE districts. I figured they were going to do this early on. I got tipped off by a mole that was the list they were working from months ago.
There was no grand mystery here, it was really simple math that made Jensen the 6th member of the RS5. MONEY! And lots of it.
There has been a story circulating in our local rag that Stehly lost the race because her supporters did not show up and she was mean to Neitzert.
Hogwash!
First off, Stehly and Jensen both probably got more votes than any city councilor in the history of our city. Just because Theresa lost by 97 votes doesn’t mean her support wasn’t there.
As for Neitzert, she did the right thing by fighting him on all of his misguided votes on the administration building, the internal auditor and the Bunker Ramp and many more issues. If anything, her battles with him helped her.
I have said if the election was held on April 14th it would have been a landslide for her. Why? Because the normal percentage of voters who pay attention to city politics would have shown up and cast the appropriate informed vote. Covid threw a wrench in it. Not to mention the lackluster training of the poll workers, something virtually not brought up in the hit piece and the enormous amount of money from the banksters and developers spent on her opposing candidate.
This did not clearly happen. A bunch of uninformed, partisan, primary voters showed up to elect a ‘real’ establishment Republican to the city council, not having a clue that this was a non-partisan race. They may have been confused why there wasn’t an R or D behind their names. It was a perfect storm to get the partisan hack clems to show up to vote that think city government is about party politics. It is not, but this current administration and his lackeys have turned it into us against them.
Local government is about all of us. Republican, Democratic, Independent, minority, gay, straight, religious or non-religious and those of us who just don’t give a damn. Theresa lost because 98 more ignorant fools voted for the other guy. The math is really that simple.
I want to thank the members of the recount board: Jon Hansen-Del Rapids, Rodney Steele-Brookings and my attorney Randy Seiler-Fort Pierre. These men crossed party lines on June 24th and worked collaboratively to examine approximately 29,000 ballots. They all made transparency and citizen accountability the top priority of the day. I feel confident that every allowable vote was counted.
I also want to thank City Council Clerk Tom Grecko , County Auditor Bob Litz , City Attorney Stacy Koistra and all election support staff for running an efficient recount day. In the end, I lost by 97 votes.
As I leave this council position, I want the citizens to know that I served them with a loving heart. I always tried protect their best interests and to help them whenever I could.
I wish Alex Jensen the best. I pray that he will serve the people with the responsiveness and caring respect they deserve.
God bless you all,
Theresa Stehly
I want to applaud the review board, they did an excellent job of reviewing this fairly. I also want to give props to Auditor Litz and Clerk Greco for taking care of this professionally and in a timely manner. I’m glad to see there was no real issues.
As I have said before, I didn’t want my friend Theresa running for re-election. It was taking a toll on her that I didn’t like. It changed her in ways that were positive, but in more ways made her more bitter, angry and suspicious of government.
She worked hard. I probably spent more hours on the phone talking to her about policy then she did in meetings. It was a wrestling match that I did not enjoy, because solving those problems are hard. Very Hard!
She HATED secrecy and corruption, and it showed everytime she turned on her microphone at public meetings.
We will never see another Theresa Stehly in city government again. I don’t say this lightly. It makes me very sad and discouraged. We have allowed a bunch of toddlers take over the city, and soon we will be paying the price. You will see.
But don’t think Theresa is going to ride off in the sunset. It’s not her nature. When a door closes on her, another one opens. I think we will see that.
I want to congratulate Jensen, he won fair and square (besides the money).
Kids, it’s always about ‘The money’. If you don’t have it, you don’t win.
So isn’t it interesting that the re-count manual was changed on June 3rd? The good news is that the manual that existed on the day of the election is what stands, not the changed one. I have not reviewed either manual, so I do not know the changes, but by law, the one that existed on June 2nd is that one that applies to the city election and recount. Curious what changes were made and the curious timing of those changes.
As you can see below, the games will begin next Wednesday and it will take three days to comb it over. Not sure, but if the recount needs to be extended past that time, a court may get involved. I am not going to hold my breath and say this will be over next Friday.
PIERRE, S.D. (KELO) -- About $700,000 has been raised in cash and commitments toward a $3 million trust that will help fund the new State Veterans Cemetery being built at Sioux Falls, a South Dakota official told lawmakers Thursday. State Veterans Affairs deputy secretary Aaron Pollard said the cemetery is designed to last 100 to […]
